The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Osteospermum plant, botanically known as Osteospermum ecklonis and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Sunost1403’.
The new Osteospermum plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Odense, Denmark. The objective of the program is to create and develop new Osteospermum plants with compact and uniformly mounded plant habit, freely flowering habit and attractive ray and disc floret coloration.
The new Osteospermum plant originated from a cross-pollination by the Inventor in May, 2011 of a proprietary selection of Osteospermum ecklonis identified as code number 09.20.003, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with Osteospermum ecklonis ‘Sunost1101’, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 24,162, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Osteospermum plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Odense, Denmark in June, 2012.
Asexual reproduction of the new Osteospermum plant by terminal cuttings in a controlled greenhouse environment in Odense, Denmark since September, 2012 has shown that the unique features of this new Osteospermum plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.